Amazon Prime members can now send gifts to friends with only their email or mobile number—no delivery address needed.
Don’t worry about spoiling the surprise by asking someone for their house number and ZIP code. With the eligible product in your cart, select “Add a gift receipt for easy returns” and proceed to checkout. Then, when choosing a delivery address, Prime members will see an option to “Let the recipient provide their address.”
Enter the giftee’s email or mobile number and send a personalized message, which will appear in their online or SMS inbox with Amazon’s usual flourish. They’ll need to accept within a few days or it will expire and payment will be refunded. Recipients must also have an Amazon account to accept, but only the giver needs to be a Prime member.
The receiver can also exchange the item for an Amazon gift card and quietly purchase something else without alerting the benefactor. (Until they visit and wonder where you’re keeping the “Weird Al” Yankovic Chia Pet they bought you.)
As The Verge points out, the feature “sounds like a bad idea that is ripe for abuse by scammers, stalkers, and those who take pleasure in the online harassment of others,” since there is no option for people to opt out of receiving gift notifications. Presumably that’s why this is tied to an Amazon Prime account, but Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shopping function is rolling out now to US-based Prime members via the mobile app only.
